Arizona basketball: Sean Miller racking up bonus money during NCAA Tournament

So much cash

Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller is already the state’s highest-paid public employee, bringing in a reported $4.95 million per year.

And with each win in the NCAA Tournament, that number keeps growing.

After reaching the Sweet Sixteen, Miller has made an extra $265,000 in performance bonuses in total this season.

Arizona coach Sean Miller adds $50,000 bonus as Wildcats beat Saint Mary's to reach NCAA men's Sweet 16. He's at $265,000 in bonuses so far

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) March 19, 2017

According to last year’s USA Today Coaches Salary database, Miller was the third-highest paid coach in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, and his total bonuses could be worth $1.26 million. So if you do the math, there is another million dollars worth of incentives on the table for Miller the rest of the way.

Former Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne talked about Miller’s pay raises last March, saying Miller hasn’t asked for any of those raises he’s received since being hired by Arizona in 2009.

“Coach Miller obviously is a high-demand coach in his sport,” said Jay Heiler, chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents. “It’s driven not only by the rest of the college basketball world. It’s also driven by the professional basketball world. Scarce leadership resources puts constant upward pressure on compensation. … We deal with it like any board would in any industry in any setting regarding its top leadership talent.”

When looking at the amount of money that athletics needs to keep up with in regards to facilities, they are proposing a new athletics fee that would go into place at the start of the next academic year. Right now that number is set at $100 for undergrad students, and $50 for incoming grad students.

At the start of the 2016-17 academic year, Arizona was one of just two public schools in the Pac-12 that didn’t have a general athletics fee for its students. Byrne proposed a $200 fee, but that was shot down by the students’ association. ASU has a $150 annual fee for its students. If U of A is to compete facilities-wise, it will likely need this latest iteration of the athletics fee to pass to get that fundraising.

Anyways, just remember that this whole thing has tons of money surrounding it, and not a cent of it goes to the actual players that are providing you this endless entertainment.

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